Mulberries

As a kid, we’d always feed mulberry leaves to silkworms as a class project, did you ever do that? We kept them in shoeboxes until they spun their cocoons.

I had no idea the tree berries were edible, and maybe they weren’t. I got these at the grocery store, and have yet to feel my windpipe constrict.

They don’t have a lot of odor, texture like a firm raspberry, and the flavor is unusual. They’re sweet like a blackberry, but very earthy, and with a height to the sweetness that’s almost a little chemical. You can eat the green stalk that runs up the center, but that stalk is also firm enough that you can pull the berry flesh off with your teeth and be left with what looks like a cherry stem.